Heather ran a pilot project for Giant exploring different approaches to Early Years Storytelling between August and September 2007. Following this, Heather set up Paper Tiger, and in a joint project with Giant, extended the initial pilot for a further term of Tuesday afternoon workshops between November and December 2007.

In the Winter Term, Heather decided to either write the stories herself on themes decided by the children, or she re-told existing stories in her own words. This proved to be a satisfying and successful approach as it allowed for the children to really influence their experiences and also allowed for more imagination, creative play and eye-contact in the Interactive Workshops.

There were stories about monsters, princesses, pirates, adventures at sea, magic paintboxes, holidays, parties, fantastical houses, fire-breathing dragons, talking peacocks, flying motor cars and, of course, a seasonal Santa.

Here are some images from the extended pilot project:

Heather's approach to storytelling takes in the traditional story, but places a much greater emphasis upon the interests of the participating children. The workshops are led very much by the choices that those children make as individuals and as a collective. Consequently, one or two of the elements of each storytelling workshop are dictated by the children in the planning stages, and this might lead to the selection of a storybook or picture book, or may result in Heather writing an original story based on the characters or themes that the children have suggested.

Here are some of the stories that Heather has used or written for her workshops. The original stories are listed in the year they were written, but have been used many times since then:

2008
Where the Wild Things Are (by Maurice Sendak)
The Princess & the Pea (by Hans Christian-Anderson)

2007
Billy & the Pirates (original story)
The Boy & the Paintbox (original story)
The Tiny Girl from Gironimo Island (original story)

2005
The Red-Haired Boy & the Roaring Dragon (original story)

Between April and October 2007, Heather worked as part-time Drama Officer at Giant, running various projects within both communities and schools as well as in Giant's own dedicated Workshop Space. To complement this work, she ran Twilight Training sessions as part of Giant's Training Programme. These sessions were aimed at nursery workers, primary teachers and support workers within both mainstream and SEN education, play workers, and other professionals who use creative approaches in their work with children.

The session was called 'Making Story-time Interactive' and was a practical workshop helping participants to create and develop stories through a range of multi-sensory methods such as, the use of props, sound, scent and fabrics. It involved movement, discussion, story-making, and skill and knowledge sharing. Initially, only one of these Training sessions was programmed, but the course proved to be so popular that Heather actually facilitated three sessions in just over a month.

Here are some images from the training sessions:

• "[Heather's] examples from her practice were excellent."
  
  
• "I enjoyed listening to other people's stories and how they work with children. Training was good to refresh memory and ideas."
  
  
•  "Everyone took part. It was a nice group of people from different projects and I got lots of new ideas. Heather was very nice and told a lovely story."
  
  
• "How to begin the storytelling session was very good - exercises, music, etc."
  
  
• "It was an interactive workshop - engaging - and let us share ideas with other practitioners."
  
  
• "[The best part was] when we had to produce our own work!"
  
  
• "Excellent, informative session."
  
  
• "[The best parts were] group activities and sharing ideas. It's amazing how many ideas sprung out which I could adapt to my own working situation."
  
  
• "The leader was friendly and inspirational."
  
  
• "Having to do your own story with props and movements really helped me to use my otherwise not so creative imagination! It helped me realise that I could be imaginative with my story telling."
  
  
• "There were loads of resources, it made everyone think. Ideas were bounced off and expanded."
  
  
• "Excellent course presenter."
  
  
• "Delightful."